Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Original idea behind Panzerjager 1

My brother has always loved the Czech-made
Skoda 47 mm anti-tank gun and he had no intention to
build a Panzerjager 1 at first. He
wanted to build the towed version instead.
He changed his mind after a war game in which we did reenacting the
Battle of France. At that time, our German
army had no anti-tank gun at all and we desperately needed something to give an
advantage to the German army over the French one. After all, the French did lose the battle!

History of the Panzerjager 1

The Panzerjager 1 was the first attempt by German army to produce a cheap tank destroyer. It was clearly a stopgap solution.

There two production runs for a total of 202 vehicles. There were two versions built. The first batch had a five-sided shield and
the second a seven-sided gun shield. In
both versions, the Panzerjager 1 was not a success even though the 47 mm was a
good anti-tank gun at that time.

The Panzerjager 1 was a very small tank as our scale model shows

The crew as almost no protection against enemy fire

As mention in Wikipedia, the testimonies of the crews who served them are appalling:

"The 4.7 cm armor-piercing shells (Panzergranaten) are very good
against 45 to 50 millimetres (1.8 to 2.0 in) thick armor at ranges up to 500
metres (550 yd) - sufficient to 600 metres (660 yd). Observation is very bad.
You have to look over the shield to observe to the front, resulting in head
shots (Kopfschüsse)! In effect the crew are blind when attacking in villages or
against street barricades, M.G. nests and individual tanks".

Anti-tank Battalion 643 25 July 1940

"The effective range of the 4.7 cm Pak(t) is 1,000 to 1,200 metres
(1,100 to 1,300 yd) with a maximum range of 1,500 metres (1,600 yd). When
attacking an enemy position equipped with anti-tank guns and artillery, as
occurred near Mogilev and Rogachev, because of its high superstructure that
presents a good target for artillery and anti-tank guns, the Panzerjäger is
destroyed before it can get into action."